Border War

Monday, May 12, 2014

Israeli officials have even
expressed a preference for Saudi-backed Sunni extremists winning in Syria if
that is the only way to get rid of Assad and hurt his allies in Iran and
Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Even to the point of forming a 'de facto' alliance with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, the Wahhabi Sunni
monarch (known for his gross anti-Semitism and the "Golden
Chain' that financed the September 11, 2001 attack upon the United
States).

Last September,
Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren told the Jerusalem Post
that Israel so wanted Assad out and his Iranian backers weakened, that Israel
would accept al-Qaeda operatives taking power in Syria.

Michael Oren

“We always wanted Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the
bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.”

Even if the other “bad guys” were affiliated with al-Qaeda. “We understand that they are pretty bad guys,” Oren said in the
interview.

Following the Iraqi Army’s operations against Al-Qaeda forces in
Al-Anbar province, the Saudi arms shipments have been stuck behind
Iraq’s borders with Syria. The Saudi arms shipments entered Iraq from
the Saudi city of Nakheib and via Ar-Ar border crossing.

Nearly 70 2-ton vehicles are waiting for the Iraqi
army forces to end its operation and withdraw from the region giving
them a chance to cross the border with Syria.

The vehicles are packed with explosives used for suicide attacks as well as anti-armor and anti-aircraft weapons.

Saudi Arabia is still supporting the Al-Qaeda terrorist groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

While Turkey has closed a large part of its
borders to terrorists and Jordan has also considered restrictions for
the Saudi nationals who intend to sneak into Syria, Iraq’s desert
borders where the government does not have a lot of military and
security supervision are regarded as the best route for Saudi Arabia’s
logistical supports for the terrorists in Syria.

Israeli struck
Syria from the air at least five times in the past year in support of al-Qaeda
elements in Syria. In January 2013, Israel struck a Syrian Army convoy carrying weapons while it
had stopped at a Syrian research center on the outskirts of Damascus.

CNN) -- A series of massive explosions illuminated the predawn sky in Damascus, prompting more claims that Israel has launched attacks

Israel attacked
twice more, over the course of one weekend in May, targeting a shipment of
advanced surface-to-surface missiles at the Damascus international
airport.

The Israeli Air
Force struck at Assad's forces at least twice in October of 2013 and then again this
past week with another pair of airstrikes and an artillery barrage, in support of al-Qaeda forces, in Syria.

Media sources
confirm the seizure of an Israeli military vehicle in Al Qseir inside Syrian
territory.

The vehicle’s licence plate corresponds to that of the Israeli
military with a black background and the letter Tsade (צ) (see image below)

Al Qseir is a
strategic border town on the Northern frontier of Lebanon. Occupied by rebels,
it was taken back by Syrian forces on Monday.

Al-Qseir
controls the highway which runs from the Lebanese border to Homs. It is through
this border city that weapons and foreign mercenaries have entered Syria.

According to SANA,
quoting (unconfirmed) media source:

“The seizure of an
Israeli military vehicle which terrorists had been using in al-Qseir refutes
the allegations made by Israel to justify its aggression on Syria and proves
the scale of Israel’s military and intelligence involvements in the events in
Syria.”

Israeli military vehicle which terrorists had been using in al-Qseir

“The source said
that the Israeli military support for the armed terrorist groups proves the
involvement of Qatar, Turkey and Israel in the aggression on Syria which is
waged through a single central operations room.

Israeli military support for terrorism in Syria proves once more
that Israel was and still is adopting the policy of organized state terrorism, stressing that the world must act to confront this terrorism.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

When passed in 1971, the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act
protected wild horses living on public lands managed by the Bureau of
Land Management (BLM), which is part of the Department of the Interior,
and the U.S. Forest Service, which is a division of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture.

The BLM oversees roughly 245 million acres of public land in 12
western states and 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate. BLM
lands are used for multiple purposes, including mining leases, energy
development, livestock grazing and recreation. The Forest Service
oversees 193 million acres of land in 44 states, and these lands are
also used for multiple purposes, including livestock grazing, logging
and recreation.
The BLM authorizes livestock grazing on virtually all BLM land in the
lower 48 states, or 157 million of the 245 million total acres. By
contrast, wild horses are restricted to just 26.6 million acres, --just
11 percent of BLM lands. Horses share that small fraction of BLM land
with livestock, and the agency routinely allocates the majoirty of
forage in designated wild horse Herd Management Areas to livestock, not
wild horses.

Welfare ranching

Ranchers pay $1.35 per Animal Unit Month (AUM) to graze their
livestock on BLM and Forest Service lands. (An AUM is the amount of
forage necessary to sustain 1 cow/calf pair, 1 horse or 5 sheep for a
month.) The fee is the lowest allowable under law and is about 1/16th of
market rate, thanks to our tax subsidies. (The average monthly lease
rate for grazing on private lands in 11 western states in 2011 was
$16.80 per head, according to the Congressional Research Service.)
BLM issues 17,869 permits to run livestock, authorizing a maximum of
12.5 million AUMs. The Forest Service issues 6,289 permits to livestock
operators, authorizing a maximum of 8.5 million AUMs. That's a combined
total of more than 24,158 permits and 21 million AUMs -- an equivalent
of 1,750,000 cows or 8,750,000 sheep!
By contrast the government has set a maximum allowable level of just 26,500 for wild horses and burros!
Thanks to below-market grazing rates, the federal public lands
grazing program costs taxpayers hundreds of millions annually. In
addition to direct administrative costs, there are costs associated with
programs to: 1) restore and repair of environmental damage caused by
livestock grazing; kill predators, including coyotes, mountain lions,
bobcats and other carnivores, at the request of ranchers; and 3) remove
wild horses, which ranchers view as competition for cheap grazing on
public lands.
The Center for Biological Diverstiy estimates that the federal public
lands grazing program costs American taxpayers $500 million annually.

BLM: giving away the store to the livestock industry

As stated above, wild horses are restricted to 11 percent of BLM
lands. Yet even on that small fraction of land designated as wild horse
habitat, the BLM gives away the majority of resources to livestock. In
HMA after HMA, the BLM authorizes anywhere from 3 to 20 times or more
forage to private livestock than to federally protected wild horses. As a
result of this unfair allocation of resources, the agency sets
artificially low Allowable Management Levels (AMLs) for wild horses and
claims that the horses are overpopulating when their numbers rise above
these AMLs. For example, an HMA can have an AML of 100 and an estimated
population of 300 horses and 1,500 cattle on 150,000 acres, and the BLM
will say that the horses are overpopulating and need to be removed
without ever addressing the environmental damage caused by extensive
livestock grazing.
This policy of favoring private livestock over protecting wild horses
continues despite the fact that livestock grazing on BLM land is
authorized solely at the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, whereas protection of wild horses is mandated by an act of Congress.

40 Years Later, Same Fight to Save Wild Horses

Today, as in Wild Horse Annie's day, the primary enemy of the wild
horse remains the livestock industry, which views wild horses as
competition for cheap, taxpayer-subsidized grazing on public lands. The
National Cattelemen's Beef Association is a powerful presence in
Washington and a key force behind the continued mass removal of wild
horses from public lands. The myth perpetuated by the NCBA and the BLM
is that wild horses are overpopulating -- overruning the West. In
reality, wild horses are restricted to a tiny portion of public lands in
the West and are outnumbered by at least 50-1 by private livestock.

Solutions

The controversy over wild horses has raged for decades and will never
be resolved until the unfair allocations of resources on our public
lands is addressed. Wild horses and burros must receive a fairer
allocation of resources on the small amount of public land designated as
their habitat and their allowable population levels must be raised. The
present wild horse and burro population -- estimated to be 31,500 wild
horses and 5,800 burros -- could easily be accommodated by modest
reallocations of resources in HMAs. These populations can then be
managed on the range, using safe and humane birth control as an
alternative to the roundups, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of
dollars in the coming decade.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

It was July 1869 when Brevet Colonel (Major) John
Green of the U.S. 1st Cavalry led more than 120 troops on a scouting
expedition north from Camp Goodwin and Camp Grant into the White
Mountains area of Arizona. Their mission, to kill or capture the
Apache they encountered. Heading north, following the San Carlos
River, the expedition crossed the Black River, moving to the White
River area near the future site of Fort Apache.

Camp Apache, 1873

Discovering over 100 acres of cornfields along the White River, Army
scouts reported a large Apache settlement there. Escapa--an Apache
chief that the Anglos called Miguel--visited the expeditions camp, and
invited Col. Green to visit his village. Captain John Barry was tasked
by Colonel Green to follow Escapa to the village,with the mission to;
“if possible to exterminate the whole village.”

Arriving at Miguel's village Captain Barry, was greeted by white
flags "flying from every hut and from every prominent point," and ...

"the men, women and children
came out to meet them and went to work at once to cut corn for their
horses, and showed such a spirit of delight at meeting them that the
officers [said] if they had fired upon them they would have been guilty
of cold-blooded murder."

Returning to the White Mountains the following November Colonel Green
again met with the Apache leaders, these were Escapa (Miguel),
Eskininla (Diablo), Pedro, and Eskiltesela. After some negotiation the
Apache agreed to the creation of a military post and reservation, and
Colonel Green choose the confluence of the East and North Forks of the
White River to locate it:

“I have selected a site for a
military post on the White Mountain River which is the finest I ever
saw. The climate is delicious, and said by the Indians to be perfectly
healthy, free from all malaria. Excellently well wooded and watered. It
seems as though this one corner of Arizona were almost its garden spot,
the beauty of its scenery, the fertility of its soil and facilities for
irrigation are not surpassed by any place that ever came under my
observation. Building material of fine pine timber is available within
eight miles of this site. There is also plenty of limestone within a
reasonable distance.

This post would be of the
greatest advantage for the following reasons: It would compel the White
Mountain Indians to live on their reservation or be driven from their
beautiful country which they almost worship. It would stop their traffic
in corn with the hostile tribes, they could not plant an acre of ground
without our permission as we know every spot of it. It would make a
good scouting post, being adjacent to hostile bands on either side. Also
a good supply depot for Scouting expeditions from other posts, and in
fact, I believe, would do more to end the Apache War than anything
else.”

On 16May, 1870 troops from the 21st Infantry and 1st Cavalry were
ordered to establish "a camp on the White Mountain River ." It was
initially called Camp Ord.

The troops stationed at Camp Goodwin moved to the site over the
course of the 1870, and the camp would be designated Camp Mogollon, then
Camp Thomas , before the Army settled upon calling it, Camp Apache . It
was in 1879 that the post became Fort Apache.

Aerial view of the Fort Apache site, looking east, with canyon of East Fork of White River in foreground,

and the white cone roof of Nohwike'

* * * * * * *

The Punitive Expedition into Mexico

Following the surrender of Geronimo the need for Indian scouts
diminished until by 1891 the number of Apache scouts in Arizona had
dropped to fifty. In 1915 there were only 24 remaining in service. With
Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing's Punitive Expedition into Mexico 17 Apache
more scouts were enlisted to join the Army's campaign, because in 1916
the number had risen to 39, and by 1917 the number had rescinded to 22.

When the 10th Cavalry from Fort Huachuca and others from Fort Apache
joined the l1th Cavalry on their long scouts into Mexico in search of
the bandit/revolutionary, Pancho Villa they were accompanied by the
Apache scouts.

First Sergeant Chicken, Jesse Palmer, Tea Square, Sgt. Big Chow,

and Corporal C.F. Josh, in front of the adjutant's office at Fort Apache in 1919.

To assist in the Punitive Expedition of 1916, twenty Indian scouts
from Fort Apache were assigned to the 11th Cavalry. Arriving too late to
take part in the search for Villa, which had gone into hiatus because
of the olitical protests by the Carranza government concerning the U. S.
incursion onto Mexican territory. Regardles there was ample opportunity
for the scouts show their prowess at tracking. Captain James A. Shannon
of the 11th Cavalry wrote in the journal of the U. S. Cavalry Association of April 1917, "With the Apache Scouts in Mexico." In that piece he well described their cautious way of operating.

Captain James A. Shannon of the 11th Cavalry

“The Indian cannot be beaten at his own
game. But in order to get results, he must be allowed to play that game
in his own way. You tell a troop of white soldiers there is a enemy a
thousand yards in your front and they will go straight at him without
questions. The Indian under the same circumstance wants to look it all
over first. He want to go to one side and take a look. Then to the other
side and take a look. He is like a wild animal stalking its prey.
Before he advances he wants to know just what is in his front. This
extreme caution which we don't like to see in the white man, is one of
the qualities that makes him a perfect scout. It would be almost
impossible to surprise an outfit that had a detachment of Apache scouts
in its front

.

They do not lack courage by any means.
They have taken part in some little affairs in Mexico that required
plenty of courage, but they must be allowed to do things in their own
way.

James A. Shannon.

The centuries-old hatred of Mexicans that the Apache arbored showed
itself in the course of the expedition. Shannon recalled an evening when
they encountered some government troops.

...As we approached this
outfit and opened a conversation with them, Sergeant Chicken (First
Sergeant of the Scouts) fingered his gun nervously and gave vent in one
sentence to the Indians' whole idea of the Mexican situation:

"Heap much Mexican, shoot 'em all!"

There was no fine
distinctions in their minds between friendly Mexicans and unfriendly,
Carranzistas and Villistas, de facto troops and bandits. To their direct
minds there was only one line of conduct-

"Heap much Mexican, shoot 'em all!"

They had to be watched pretty carefully when out of camp to be kept from putting this principle into practice.

The Apache scouts proved useful in tracking American deserters and on
at least one occasion located some of the villistas. They picked up the
trail of some stolen American horses that were two or three days old.
Shannon writes:

They started off on the trail and after
going a short distance came to a rocky stretch where the trail was hard
to follow. They circled out like a pack of hounds and soon one of them
gave a grunt and all the rest went over where he was and started off
again. After a while the trail seemed to divide, so the detachment split
up into two parties following the two trails. After about an hour or
so, one of these parties overtook the villistas in a very narrow ravine.
They shot two of them, and on account of the narrowness of the pass,
unfortunately shot two of the horses, one of which proved to be the
private horse of Lieutenant Ely of the Fifth Cavalry. They recovered one
government horse and got some Mexican saddles, rifles, etc.

Indian scouts Andrew Paxton, Charley Shipp, and Joe Quintero

with Dr. McCloud at Fort Apache in 1918.

Colonel Wharfield, a lieutenant commanding scouts in 1918, would
later describe how the Apaches were expected to be employed that year.

The Apache scouts were not trained or
drilled to maneuver as the soldiers of the army. Their operations were
in accordance with the Apache's natural habits of scouting and fighting.
The only directions given by the military were general in nature for
the requirements of the movements of the troops. On the march small
groups of the scouts were out several miles on the flanks and in front,
keeping occasional contacts with the main body. At night most of them
came in, leaving a few of the scouts posted as lookouts. An Apache never
wanted to be surprised, and all of their movements were based on that
principle. They approached ridges and high ground with extreme caution,
peeking around, looking as far ahead as possible, using cover, and
keeping exposure to the minimum. In a fight they did not believe in
charging and battling against all odds, which was the quality of many of
the Indians of the Plains.

Always they sought for an advantage over
the foe, and retreated rather than expose themselves to gun fire. These
characteristics made the Apache an invaluable scout in the field for
operations with troops. Likewise it accounts for the fact that small
numbers of hostile Apaches were able to thwart the efforts of the army
in so many instances....

During my service in 1918 at Fort Apache
the scouts wore cavalry issue clothing shoes and leggins, but some
retained the wide car belt of their own construction and design. An
emblem U.S.S. for United State Scouts was fastened on the front of the
issue campaign hat. The regulation emblem was crossed arrows on a disc
with the initials U.S.S.; but I never saw such a design on the scouts'
uniform nor in the Quartermaster supply room.

Lieutenant Wharfield talked about some of the scouts who stood out in his memory.

At Fort Apache I had excellent
relationships with Chicken. We hunted together for a few days on Willow
Creek, branch of the Black River. He was on a manhunt with me after a
trooper, who went AWOL and was hiking southward toward Globe. The scouts
successfully tracked the soldier. We apprehended him near the lower
White River bridge, close to Tom Wanslee's trading store. In addition to
those trips together, there were many other routine contacts at the
fort. He, of course, did not handle the first sergeant's paperwork; that
was done by white soldiers of the Quartermaster Detachment, but I
always gave him the orders and other matters regarding the scouts for
him to execute and pass along. He was a good leader, and a highly
respected man at the fort.

During my tour of duty at Fort Apache in
1918.... old Billy was my favorite scout. He could speak only Apache and
did not even understand pidgin-English. He lived by himself in a tin
shack on the scout row just outside the east gate of the post proper.
Frequently in the evenings when riding my mount around the post, I
stopped at his place for a visit. We would squat on the ground, smoke
hand-rolled cigarettes, and gaze at the evening sky without a word
between us. When I got up to leave, it is my recollection that we always
shook hands.

Upon retirement Charles Bones located in a
little Indian settlement called Canyon Day, some four miles southwest
of old Fort Apache. Here he opened a restaurant and served big meals for
twenty-five cents. At that price many of the Indians ate there instead
of purchasing more expensive food at the trader's store. Bones had a
good trade but did not much more than break even. The old scout also
kept a saddle horse and a good team. He exercised his horses by riding
the saddle animal in front of the team hauling the wagon, using a lariat
for a lead-line. By this method the old Apache was again in the saddle
instead of jolting along on the wagon seat with the pony tied behind. Of
course a stranger might wonder why the wagon was taken along, but Bones
probably figured that was a method of keeping his team wagon-broke.

It is noted that the officer, who
commanded the scouts in 1932, failed to have Sergeant Charles Bones
advanced in grade upon retirement; such as was the custom of the old
army in recognition of the long years faithful service.

The separate units of Indian Scouts which had existed since 1866 were
discontinued on June 30, 1921, and since that time the Apaches were
carried on the Detached Enlisted Men's List.

In
England, the first polo match was organized by Captain Edward "Chicken"
Hartopp, of the British Cavalry 10th Hussars, on Hounslow Heath in
1869. However, one year earlier in 1868, a detachment of this regiment
had played a practice game near Limerick. By the 1870's, the sport of
polo was well established in England.

In
1876, James Gordon Bennett, a noted American publisher, introduced the
sport of polo to New York City. He organized the first polo match in the
United States at Dickel's Riding Academy at 39th Street and Fifth
Avenue.

In the spring of 1876, a
group of polo players established the first formal American polo club,
the Westchester Polo Club, at the Jerome Park race track in New York.

In
1877, Thomas Hitchcock Sr., Oliver W. Bird, August Belmont, Benjamin
Nicoll, and their associates participated in the first polo match on
Long Island. The polo match was played on the infield of the racetrack
of the Mineola Fair Grounds.

Within
ten years, there were numerous polo clubs on Long Island. Over the next
50 years, the sport of polo achieved tremendous popularity in the
United States.

It
was in 1892 that the the 4th Cavalry Regiment organized the first
regimental polo club in Washington state, Horsemanship became synonymous
with leadership, and polo was an efficient way to train soldiers and
officers in the art of war. At Fort Riley, Kansas, Army polo was being
played in full force by 1896. Cow ponies were bought for $15 a head and
teams were assembled, schooled and sent on the road to compete against
other teams in Fort Benning, Georgia, Fort Bliss and Kelly Field in
Texas, Fort Douglas, Utah, Fort Monroe, Virginia, and the Field
Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Popularity amongst the offiers
was such that the Army Polo Association became a part of the United
States Polo Association in 1902, and subsequently in 1914 there was polo
being played at seventeen Army stations.

From
1900 to 1936, polo was an Olympic sport. In 1920 an Army Team was
fielded and represented the United States in the Olympic Games at
Antwerp, with the American squad emerging bronze medalists behind the
United Kingdom’s British Army gold medal winners. United Kingdom teams
were the international polo powers of the time and were medalists for
five Olympiads held before the Second World War. In 1936 polo was
officially dropped from the Olympic Games. It must be remembered that in
fact, until the cavalry was disbanded in 1948, every single U.S.
equestrian Olympic team was made up of members of the cavalry or U.S.
Army equestrian team; civilians were not invited to take part until the
Helsinki games in 1952, the same year women were first allowed to
compete in Olympic equestrian events.

"U.S. cavalry fighters are going to play polo

in order to obtain poise in the saddle."

The experiences of US Army polo in the Philippines tell an illustrative tale.

William
Cameron Forbes was an American investment banker and diplomat. During
the administration of President Howard Taft, he served as
Governor-General of the Philippines from 1908 to 1913. Among his
passions was the game of Polo; so much so that he bought a tract of land
along Manila Bay out of his personal funds and donated it to the
incorporators of the Manila Polo Club which opened in November of 1909.

Forbes
wrote regular articles in polo magazines abroad and soon, the Manila
Polo Club’s reputation as a premier polo institution quickly spread
around the world. Cameron Forbes’ book “As To Polo”. An outgrowth of that book was, “A Manual of Polo” written in 1910. It became a popular text and was utilized by the U.S. Army 14th Cavalry.

Rivalry
between the Polo Club and the military always drew crowds. Among
overseas officers, polo appears to have assumed the status of a distinct
subculture, equal to that of boxing among enlisted men. By the 1920s
the army in the Philipines boasted eight polo teams and participated in a
six-month season in which matches often were played three times a week.

Forts
McKinley and Stotsenberg and the “Carabao Wallow Hunt and Polo Club” at
Nichols Field each had their own field and stable; officers brought
their polo ponies with them and there was keen interest in breeding with
European and Australian stock.Tournaments were held in February and May of each year and played for the Far Eastern, Wood, and Langhorne Cups. Source: Guardians of Empire: The U.S. Army and the Pacific, 1902-1940, Brian McAllister Linn.

‘Black
Jack’ Pershing, General of the Armies during World War I, invited the
British Army to a series of matches in 1923 and '25. All horses used in
play were required to be owned by officers on the active list or the
property of the United States War Department.

“The
United States Army polo team swept everything before it yesterday on
International Field, Meadow Brook Club, Westbury, L.I., and captured the
third and deciding game for the world’s military championship from
Great Britain, 10-3. There is no superlative to describe the efforts of
the United States representatives. Pitted against a team rated nearly
twice as strong as individuals and which was mounted on far superior
ponies, the Americans won simply by their own determined will to conquer
and an ability to play together as a unit.”

New York Times, September 19, 1923

The back story to the 1923 US Cavalry victory over the British is informativeWith
the tournament against the British scheduled for September, tryouts for
the U.S. Army team were held at Mitchel Field, New York in June of
1923. The Army Air Corps had a Polo center there at the air field,
complete with stables, hospital, barracks, feed storage, enclosed
playing field and practice grounds.

The
four players selected to represent the Army consisted of two prominent
cavalry officers. Major Arthur H. “Jingles” Wilson, a 6th Cavalry Medal
of Honor recipient from “knocking out the Moros” in 1909 was appointed “Captain of the Team”, and Major John K. Herr, a highly rated five-goal player who became the last Army Chief of Cavalry in 1938

The
other two team members were Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Brown, Jr. and
Major Louis A. Beard. The British were heavily favored to win, as their
players were rated 14 goals than the U.S. team. The game was played ‘On
the Level” and the US team was not granted any goals by handicap.

The
U.S. Army Team was quick off the mark, preparation for the match with
the English took precedence over all other duties. They spent the summer
of 1923 playing in a variety of tournaments on the east coast, they
were victorious at the U.S. Junior Championship before the British of
the UK Army Team got off the boat. The British hit the beach on the 24th
of August, bringing with them 25 first class horses and groom. Arriving
when they did, gave the Red Coats a full three weeks for their mounts
to acclimate and for them to prepare. Being that there were Olympic Gold
Medalists on the team, the British the odds were weighted towards them
to gain the upper hand and emerge victorious from the three matches that
would be played at the “Yankee Stadium of polo,” the prestigious Meadow
Brook Club in Westbury, Long Island.It
was an era when polo was a major spectator sport and the results of the
polo matches were regularly reported on the sports pages of national
papers and attendance at the games would often exceed those of both
tennis and golf in overall numbers.

The
Red Coats came with first rate horsemen, bringing experienced polo
playing officers from lancer and hussar regiments of the British Army.
They were the ream of the rop, being selected to participate in the
forth coming international tournament. Lieutenant Colonel T.P. Melvill
of the team had only one major concern about coming to the United
States, Prohibition.

“…it
is forbidden by law to drink, gamble or bet…I did all these things in
the greatest luxury and comfort within forty-eight hours of my arrival.”

The
visiting Brits were made welcome in the homes of the prominent polo
families to include the famous Tommy Hitchcock, a dashing figure who was
the highest rated player of the day and who, it has been said, provided
a foundational character for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great
Gatsby.

The
Tournament was a best of three series and the riders rode onto thefirst
match on 12 September 1923. There were 10,000 spectators gathered at
Meadow Brook Club to watch the action. It took only thirty seconds for
the Brits to score after the first throw in. The US players were not
intimidated, but like John Paul Jones had just begun to fight, riding
hard the US Army rode on to an an upset, a 10-7 victory. Team Captain
Wilson leading while, according to the NY Times,

“Herr and Beard…stroking splendidly, saving many points by their courage in checking the British attack.”

Secretary of War Weeks, and “officers and buck privates”
in the stands celebrated the victory, as the Americans at a gallop
style of play seemed to baffle the slower moving British. (Washington
Post)It was just four days later
when the Red Coats managed a 12-10 win against the American officers
with “Black Jack” Pershing and the U.S. Military Academy First Class
watching from the sidelines on that fateful Saturday. The British win
set the stage for the third and final match, at which who had the
bragging rights for the the first International Military Polo
Championship would be determined It was on the 18th of September that Major Herr wrote home saying, “Today we must do battle with our backs against the wall,” before mounting up on his string of polo horses, Liggett, Starlight, Meld and Spaghetti to ride against the British.

The
US team continued to ride hard and played with a hurry up offensive
style, pushing to score quickly, before their horses were spent. Herr
and Brown each scored four goals, becoming the the offensive stars of
the team., It turned out to be a great day for the US Cavalry, out
scoring the Red Coats, 10-3, in a decisive victory over the best the
British had to offer. The unexpected victory was complete and cups
presented to the winning team by famous polo player Devereux Milburn and
the Secretary of War.

The New York Times afterwards in analyzing the tournament identified the winning key components of the U.S. Army Team “as speed, intensity and team work,” traits that many officers later also identified as values of the sport.

While
newspaper sports writers were struggling to the proper superlatives for
the US triumph over the British, the effect upon the U.S. Army was
immediate, The Cavalry Journal wrote ...

“We are continuing to justify the War Department policy of promoting polo.”

The
sports popularity amongst officers increased substantially. With the
USPA reporting that an additional 244 officers joined the handicap rolls
with nearly forty per cent of all rated players being Army officers.

The
game became so popular that in 1928 there was polo being played at
forty-seven Army posts scattered across the continental United States
and in the territories of the Philippines, Hawaii and the Canal Zone.

It
was during the 1930s that there were 1,500 polo players in the US
military. This number greatly exceeded the number of civilians that
participated at the sport. All these polo playing soldiers needed
horses, and that's where the Army remount service came in. provided a
valuable resource-not only to the military but to the sport in general
as well. The remount service began around 1912 and supplied horses for
the Army from four main military installations, in Virginia, Oklahoma,
Nebraska and California. The Quartermaster Corps acted as purchasing
agents for the Army and would meet any demand made for horses. The
remount depots also became involved in a country-wide breeding program
for the Army horses.

* * * * * *

When
the National Intercollegiate Polo Association was formed, two of the
six original were military schools-Pennsylvania Military Academy and
West Point. West Point's last team, the Black Knights, played in 1946.

The
1939-1940 polo season was, perhaps, one of the greatest for polo at
PMC. Under the guidance of Coach Carl Schaubel, ’30, considered at the
time to be the best polo coach in the country, the team of Jim Spurrier
‘40, Emery Hickman ‘40 and “Bud” Maloney ‘41 excelled. Jim Spurrier was
the sparkplug of the team. Bud Maloney formed the spearhead on attack,
and Emory Hickman constantly retrieved the ball, feeding it to Spurrier
and Maloney. Following the completion of a successful regular season,
the PMC team once again played in the Intercollegiate Polo Tournament.
They beat Harvard and West Point, but were defeated by Princeton in the
Championship game. After graduation, these men, along with William
Dudley ’42, a sophomore and another member of the polo team, were again
teamed together in the 1st Cavalry Division. Three of these polo players
distinguished themselves in action and earned Silver Star Medals for
their leadership and heroism.

Oklahoma Military Academy

By
1930, OMA’s enrollment was nearing 300, ten times the size of the first
class 11 years earlier. That same year, the school got a Reserve
Officer Training Corps (R.O.T.C.) cavalry program, with the federal
government sending 60 horses and 11 enlisted men to the Hill.

Oklahoma Military AcademyFlying Cadets

The
cavalry program gave birth to a polo team, which quickly became one of
the best in the nation. In a famous 1934 event, sponsored by Will
Rogers, the OMA Flying Cadets beat the Stanford University squad twice
in a row, following a train trip that carried the Claremore riders and
their steeds to the West Coast.

Value of the Sport

Polo
is a dangerous game; that being one of the sport's attractions for
young, energetic officers. An Army officer was killed while playing at
the Meadow Brook Club in 1931. The Cavalry Journal reported a minor
accident or fall rate of some 71 per cent for officers who were
questioned in a survey of four tournaments. Concussions and head
injuries were not uncommon, with exceptionally aggressive players such
as Patton suffering numerous head injuries. You have to be tough to play
polo.

Major George S. Patton Jr., head of the 1922 Army Team that won the Junior Championship, commented in an article that

“The
virtue of polo as a military accomplishment rests on the following: it
makes a man think fast while he is excited; it reduces his natural
respect for his own safety - that is, makes him bold; it ... teach[es]
restraint under exciting circumstances ... nearest to mounted combat;
makes riding worthwhile; keeps a man hard ... [and] teach[es] better
horse management.”

Also
Lucian K. Truscott, who went on to become one of WW II’s most highly
regarded Army commanders, always credited the sport with helping to
develop a successful commander’s qualities. Polo’s hard riding intensity
at times was indeed similar to combat. In fact, one of reasons
Truscott, the chief architect of the Army Ranger concept in early 1942,
was chosen for this role by Eisenhower was his well-known abilities with
the sport.

Reports from the Army Polo Association described the sport as a “vital professional asset,” that improved players’ aggressiveness, decision making skills, teamwork and physical fitness.

Finally,
a review of rosters from the period lists a significant number of
notable Army division, corps and army commanders who went onto achieve
prominence both before and during the Second World War. A review of APA
officers with a recorded handicap during the interwar period includes
such renowned Army leaders as Herr, Chaffee, Patton, Truscott,
Wainwright, Simpson, Gerhardt, Devers, Allen, Harmon, Holbrook, and
Swift.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

On July 6, 1882, about sixty White Mountain Apaches swept down onto
the San Carlos Agency ; captured and took with them half a dozen squaws ;
rode up the San Carlos River and a few miles from the Agency waylaid
and killed Chief of Scouts J. L. Colvig ("Cibicu Charley") and five or
six of his Indian police. Colvig succeeded Chief of Scouts Sterling who
had likewise been killed in an encounter with recalcitrant Apaches only
four months before.

Lt. Charles B.
Gatewood and company of Apache scouts at Fort Apache in 1880,

at the end of the
Victorio campaign. Sam Bowman, civilian scout, stands behind Gatewood.

(Arizona Pioneer's Historical Society)

The band then rode to the north, passing to the east of Globe, then
westward through the Wheatfields region above Globe, across Pleasant
Valley and up by Payson and the East Verde, leaving behind a sickening
trail of burned ranches and murdered settlers.
Following the news of the outbreak and Colvig's death, five separate bodies of U. S. troops were in the field after the raiders.

Troop D, 6th Cavalry, Capt. A. R. Chaffee and First Lieut. Frank E.
West, were first in the field from Camp McDowell on the west side of the
Basin, under orders to move to Wild Rye creek and await developments.
Chaffee had with him Al Sieber and eight Tonto Indian Scouts.

In July 1861, Chaffee, only 19 years
old, enlisted in the newly-formed 6th U. S. Cavalry as a private. In
early 1862, he was promoted to sergeant, and to first sergeant in
September 1862. As a reward for his good service, Secretary of War Edwin
M. Stanton arranged for him to be appointed second lieutenant in April
1863. Although only 21 years old, he was in command of a company of the
6th U. S. by the time of the Battle of Gettysburg that summer.

In 1904, he was promoted to
lieutenant general and became chief of staff of the United States Army, a
position he held for a bit over two years. He was one of two old horse
cavalrymen to rise from the rank of private to serve as chief of staff
of the Army, the other being Samuel Baldwin Marks Young

Troop E 6th Cavalry, Capt. Adam Kramer and Second Lieut. Thomas Cruse commanding;
Troop K 6th Cavalry, Capt. Lemuel A. Abbott and Second Lieut.
Frederick G. Hodgson commanding All under command of Major A. W, Evans,
3rd Cavalry, left Fort Apache, on the east side of the Basin, under
orders to scout the country and follow the hostiles' trail vigorously.

Two troops of the 3rd Cavalry, Capts. Russell and Wessel commanding, hurried from Whipple Barracks near Prescott.

From Fort Verde, Troop K 6 th Cavalry, 1st Lieut. Henry Kingsbury
commanding and Troop A of the 3rd Cavalry, Lieut. Chase commanding, were
rushed out of that post eastward on the old "Verde" or Crook" road,
which followed closely the "Rim" of the Tonto Basin, to scout for signs
and intercept the hostiles if they should attempt to climb up the bold
escarpment known as the "Rim of the Basin," swing around to the east and
thus back into the Apache Indian Reservation and safety.

From Fort Thomas on the Gila above San Carlos went four troops of the
3rd Cavalry with Captains Drew, Vroom and Crawford, and Lieuts. Morton,
Porter, Boughton and Davis, (Britton Davis).

Thus we have a record of no less than 15 troops of cavalry probably
350 men in all; one company of Indian scouts, and fully 150 pack-mules
with many civilian packers, all searching the country for the hostiles
and converging on them from every side.

Those who today ride over this country on well built auto roads ; who
drive easily from Phoenix to Payson, "under the Rim," in six hours, can
have little real appreciation of the difficult task these army men
faced in 1882. There is no rougher, more broken terrain in the United
States. The granitic formation is peculiarly hard on horses' hoofs and a
lost shoe on a cavalry horse or pack-mule means a lamed animal if not
shod at once.

The following account of the fight is taken from Britton Davis'
recent book, "The Truth About Geronimo," by permission of the Yale
University Press, and also with Gen. Cruse's consent.

"For the following description of the fight, the most successful our
troops ever had with the Apache after they had obtained modern arms, I
am indebted to General, then Lieutenant, Thomas Cruse, U. S. Army,
Retired, who for his gallantry in this action was awarded the
'Congressional Medal of Honor.'

Lieutenant Thomas Cruse, U. S. Army

"The hostiles had seen Chaffee's troop,
which was mounted on white horses, and had kept it under observation
from about three o'clock until dark. They counted his men and concluded
to ambush him the next day under circumstances favorable to themselves.
But they had not seen the Fort Apache column at all, and their watchers
reported the next morning that Chaffee 's troop was still alone.

"Colonel Evans told Chaffee to keep ahead the next morning as if he
were acting alone and he would follow at day break. Troop I, Converse,
Third Cavalry, also on white horses, would be in the lead at the head of
our column, so that if the Indians did stop to fight Chaffee he would
have two troops on white horses to engage them at once and the other
troops could be placed to the best advantage as they came up.

"At daylight on July 17, we moved out cautiously and saw Chaffee
climb the rim of the basin unopposed; then we followed, reached
General's Spring and saw signs of the hostile camp of the night before ;
then went on, cursing our luck over the prospect of a tedious campaign
in the rough, waterless Navaho country. About a mile farther a mounted
courier from Chaffee dashed up. Converse with his white horse troop
rushed forward at a gallop, and word was passed along that the Indians
were camped on the far side of a deep crack in the earth, a branch of
Canon Diablo (Big Dry Wash), with all arrangements to give Chaffee the
fight of his life.

"The location was about three miles from where we were, and as we
rapidly approached we could hear casual shots and an occasional volley
crash.

"Sieber and the scouts located the hostiles on the far side of the
chasm. Chaffee then is mounted his troop and sent a few men forward to
the brink When these were seen the hostiles opened fire then Converse
galloped up, dismounted almost in plain view of the hostiles, sent his
horses to the rear and advanced in line of skirmishers along the edge of
the canon as if intending to go down the trail. Both troops and
hostiles then opened up a heavy fire across the canon.

"The scene of action was in a heavy pine forest, thickly set with
large pine trees (park-like, with no underbrush or shrubbery whatever)
on a high mesa at the summit of the Mogollon Range. Across this mesa
from east to west ran a gigantic slash in the face of the earth, a
volcanic crack, some seven hundred yards across and about one thousand
feet deep, with almost perpendicular walls for miles on either side of
the very steep trail which led to the Navaho country. This crossing
point was held by the hostiles and their fire covered every foot of the
trail, descending and ascending.

"Colonel Evans and his troops rode up and quickly dismounted about
three hundred yards from the brink of the canon. Chaffee reported to
him, outlined the situation, and started to suggest some dispositions of
the troops. Evans stopped him ; told him to dispose of the troops as he
saw best and gave him full control, saying that he, Chaffee, had
located the Indians and it was his fight.

"This was one of the most unselfish actions of relinquishing command
that ever came to my notice during a long career in the army ; because,
mind you, Chaffee was not only Evans' junior (a captain) but also
belonged to another cavalry regiment, the Sixth, while Colonel Evans
belonged to the Third, and there is always rivalry for honors between
regiments so thrown together.

"Chaffee got busy at once ; ordered Kramer and Cruse with Troop E,
Sixth Cavalry, his (Chaffee's) own troop, Sixth Cavalry, commanded by
Lieutenant Frank West, and part of the Indian scouts under Sieber to go
cautiously to the right of the trail and cross where possible about a
mile to the east. When the far side of the canon had been gained they
were to form for attack and close in on the main trail. Converse and his
troop were told to keep up a heavy fire across the chasm. Troop K,
Sixth Cavalry, Captain L. A. Abbott and Lieutenant F. G. Hodgson ; Troop
E, Third Cavalry, Lieutenants F. H. Hardie and F. C. (Friday) Johnson,
and the remainder of the Indian scouts under Lieutenant George H.
Morgan, Third Cavalry, were sent across the canon to the west and then
to move east.
" A small group from each troop was left with the pack-trains and led
horses to protect them from surprise should any of the hostiles succeed
in gaining our side of the canon unperceived.

"These movements began about three o'clock in the afternoon and the
sun was shining brightly. As we moved out, we heard that Converse had
been shot in the head and was being brought in. I saw him as we passed
and rushed up for a second and spoke to him. He said something was the
matter with his eye but thought it would soon pass.

"Poor fellow, it has never passed. A 44 calibre bullet had struck a
piece of lava rock, split it in two, and one-half had penetrated the
eye, wedging itself firmly in the eye socket where, in spite of the
ministrations of the noted swung our line in a semicircle toward the
Indians' camp, driving the hostiles in front of us and penning them
against the edge of the canon.
"By this time, five o 'clock, and the shadows heavy in the dense
forest, I found myself in command of the left flank of Troop E, next to
the brink of the canon and probably two hundred yards in front of what
had been the main camp of the hostiles, indicated only by some scattered
blankets, cooking utensils, etc. Sieber was by my side.
"As our line closed in there was a furious burst of fire from the
hostiles, causing several casualties among the troops, among others,
Lieutenant Morgan, Third Cavalry, who had joined West after his Indian
scouts had been left behind the line ; and Sergeant Conn, Troop E,
Sixth. As the line advanced from tree to tree, Morgan had chances to
fire at hostiles several times and finally dropped one. Elated over his
success he called out, "I got him." In doing this he exposed his
position to another Indian in the same nest who thereupon fired and got
Morgan through the arm, into the side and apparently through both lungs.
The soldiers got the Indian.

"We thought sure that Morgan would die that night but he is still
living and in good health, a colonel on the retired list. The surgeon
(Dr.—later Colonel Ewing) found that when the bullet broke the arm bone
its force was so lessened that it did not break the rib, as from the
hole made we supposed it had, but slid around it under the skin and
lodged in the muscles of the back, where it was finally dug out and
presented to Morgan.

"Sergeant Conn was a character in the Sixth Cavalry and had been with
the regiment for about twenty years. The bullet hit him full in the
throat, made a ghastly hole, pushed aside the jugular vein (so the
surgeon claimed), grazed the vertebra and passed out, leaving a hole as
big as a silver dollar ; all this in the neck that wore a number
thirteen collar.

"In the meantime I had pushed forward with Sieber, whom I saw kill
three hostiles as they were creeping to the edge of the canon to drop
over. He would say, "There he goes," then bang would go his rifle. The
Indian that I had never seen, strain my eyes as I might, would, when hit
throw up his arms as if trying to seize some support, then under the
impetus of his rush, plunge forward on his head and roll over several
times. One, shot near the brink, plunged clear over and it seemed to me
kept falling for ten minutes.

"It was now about five-thirty and getting dusk ; only about
seventy-five yards and a little ravine some seven feet deep separated me
and my men from the Indians in the camp. I knew that unless the camp
was taken pretty quick the Indians would escape under cover of darkness,
so I resolved to cross the ravine and take it. I told Sieber that I was
going to do it, and much to my surprise he hastily remonstrated.

'Don't you do it, Lieutenant ; don't you do it ; there are lots of
Indians over there and they will get you sure.' " 'Why, Al, you have
killed every one of them,' " I replied, and instructed my men what to
do. They were to rush forward to the ravine, halt under cover, then,
when ordered, were to advance at a run into the camp with some
cartridges in hand, guns loaded. We did just that and had no casualties,
due, I think, to the fact that Captain Kramer's men and Sieber
smothered the hostiles with their fire.

"As we rushed forward on the other side of the ravine I soon
discovered that, as Sieber had said, there were lots of Indians there,
and we had business on our hands. But I had with me Sergeant Horan,
Sergeant Martin, and six or eight other old-timers whom such things did
not disconcert in the least. Things were going slap-bang when suddenly
not over six feet away was an Indian with his gun leveled directly at
me. It seemed he could not miss, so raising my gun, I stood awaiting the
shock of the bullet. He was nervous and jerked the trigger sufficiently
to barely miss me and hit a young Scotchman, McLellan, just to my left,
and probably a foot in the rear. McLellan fell, I fired and threw
myself to the ground.

"Sieber, Captain Kramer and several others saw me go down and thought
for sure I had been hit. I found I was not but saw McLellan lying
almost beside me and asked if he was hit ; he replied, 'Yes, sir,
through the arm ; I think it is broken.'

"I told him to lie quietly, and we would get back to the ravine. In a
lull, I rose up and found he was unconscious ; dragged him back about
twenty feet where the slope protected us ; rested a little, then back a
little farther. Finally Sergeant Horan and myself got him to the bottom
of the ravine.

"In going back with McLellan, Abbott's men saw several hostiles rise
up to fire, whom they had not seen before. Every man in the line turned
loose on them, not knowing that I was in their direct line of fire at
two hundred yards distance, and the way the air was filled with bullets
showed that they were coming close inside their target. Several pieces
of gravel and small fragments of rock or lead struck me in the face,
making it bleed. I was sure that I was hit and would soon collapse.
Kramer's men swarmed into the hostiles but darkness soon came on and the
fight was over.

"I grabbed some blankets from the Indian camp and made a nice bed for
McLellan, but the bullet had smashed his rib and gone through both
lungs. He passed away quietly about an hour later."
This concludes General Cruse 's statement

The President of the United
States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting
the Medal of Honor to Second Lieutenant Thomas Cruse, United States
Army, for extraordinary heroism on 17 July 1882, while serving with 6th
U.S. Cavalry, in action at Big Dry Fork, Arizona Territory. Second
Lieutenant Cruse gallantly charged hostile Indians, and with his carbine
compelled a party of them to keep under cover of their breastworks,
thus being enabled to recover a severely wounded soldier.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

The
greatest change was the addition of a saddle skirt and "english" type
girth webbing and straps. To accomplish this, the seams on the outer edges of
the saddle were opened. The skirt was nailed to the surface of the tree, after
which the girth webbing was nailed down. The straps, three in number, were
usually sewn and riveted to this webbing. At this point the cover seam was
resewn. This may have been done to retain the strength in the seam and save
time. Later modifications also replaced the sheepskin linings with hard felt
pads, sewn on as were the previous sheepskin linings

This
1928 WW2 McClellan saddle follows the original specifications, original tree
used, or a new wide 1904 style. New russet leather cover, correct side skirts,
wool covered underbars on tree, cavalry model US covered stirrups,brass
hardware, six coat straps. English style rigging